captnhoy

40 minutes ago, cliveshep said:

Can you enlarge on this please? We moved her for good 18 months ago and I paid a lot of money to bring in my container along with tools and household goods a very quick 8-man inflatable, a small grp outboard dinghy and a couple of outboards. On another thread I asked about using one of the outboard dinghies on either the Chao Praya, the local canals, or off the beach somewhere quiet. I was told I would need to get a captain's licence and also an engineer's licence and the upshot was we still have the boats unused in the store because they made it sound so difficult or even impossible to obtain these licences even when all we want is to use a rubber boat.

 

There is no way I'm going to "wing it" and break the law, I am a guest here because of my Thai wife, trouble can come easily in this country I think and I am not risking run-ins with the Authorities but if it is as easy as you say to get these papers that is good. I have been around boats all me life, I built boats, in the UK I had pleasure cruisers that were inland/off-shore so not in your bracket but many many years experience owning 6 and 7 berth boats and building/repair of all sorts plus working on engines.

 

What do you think and where should I go?

My experience with the Thai Marine Office and with the Thai Marine Police has zero correlation with understanding and abiding by marine registration and regulations in the US. I lived on board full time for 5 years. In that time I was checked for papers one time. While at anchor in Phuket's Ao Chalong. I showed them 3 documents. My Captain's License, the title for the boat, and my wife's Engineer's License, which made all 4 of the officers laugh out loud. But we had it. They wished us a good day and left.  There was never, not ever, a safety check of my boat and how it was equipped. Had there been it would have passed. What should you do? Find out where your Marine Office is, go there with your import documents and tell them what you want to do. They might look at you like you are from Mars but never mind. I'm sure that especially in BKK they have close to zero exposure to the idea of pleasure boating.  Boating here is all about commerce and they have a hard time understanding the concept of pleasure boating. Before you can operate your boat they are going to want you to title it in this country. That will involve an "inspection" where the Marine Officer comes to see your boat. It is a shadow of a real inspection. They are interested in the motor and the S/N of the motor for reasons I'll let you decide.  Then they will issue you numbers - you  have to put the numbers and the name on the boat in English and in Thai. (I recommend you name her AE just to keep it simple ). So that's what a guy should do if he is not willing to wing it. What I would do is launch my boat and go have a good time making sure I got no where near the fast tour boats on the river. When finished, take her home and no one hardly even noticed you. I would have my papers with me in the highly unlikely chance that someone stopped me. I remember your post and I bit my tongue at the time. What? 2 or 3 years ago wasn't it? The trouble that you are imagining is unlikely and can go away with small consequences. Just stay safe and use your knowledge on the water.

BTW, I just titled my 5.5 meter day boat and there was no mention of a license. Mine expired some time ago. So, that may be reserved for commercial applications or much bigger boats.

Here's an EDIT - you wrote "canals". be very careful with that and be sure there is no regular water taxi traffic in any canal that you might be interested in. No way I'd go there.

2 minutes ago, Dan5 said:

Unless things are a lot different than in the USA, it doesn't have to cost a lot. Many people who don't have a lot of money live on boats in the USA, but of course it depends on the boat and how much space you want.

This is a good comment. I know of one westerner who made a crude catamaran by marrying 2 old long tail boats and then put a house on it. It certainly is not pretty but he lives on it with several other people and they cruise in local waters in the high season. No way they have more than 200,000 baht in it. It kinda depends on what you want to do. If you want to make long voyages this boat might not be up to it.

28 minutes ago, Inepto Cracy said:

There are only two great days a boat owner has. The first is when you buy the craft. The second is when you sell it. In between you spend your money, tearing it up, throwing it into the sea or water for nothing in return. Stay away from the 3 F's. If ir Flys, Floats or you get the picture, stay away.

No argument just a minor revision. Not "stay away" I always heard  if it flies floats or xxx, it is "cheaper to rent it". Otherwise you are doing without on the last item.

11 minutes ago, cloudhopper said:

We live aboard our sailing catamaran 3-4 months every year in the high season only, usually cruising between Langkawi to the South and Payam to the North. IMO this region is better suited for motor cruising than sail, and you can find very sheltered long term anchorages in all seasons at no cost. As mentioned a Thai captain license is easy to get and the requirement for an engineer was eliminated many years back. 

 

edit - It would be better to purchase a Thai-flagged vessel. 

Like many requirements in Thailand I think it depends on which office you deal with as to what the requirements are. Quite recently I had to talk them out of the need for an engineer on my 6 meter day fisher. And it was not easy.

4 minutes ago, superal said:

I suppose if there were 2 or 3 of you this would make the expense of fees / mooring etc  a lot easier to cope with . I could not see myself sailing solo .

If you are referring to boat partnerships that is an entirely different topic. I'm very in favor of it in principle but it too is full of potential pitfalls. I promise you somebody is going to be the first to want to get out. You'll need a plan for that.

1 minute ago, grollies said:

MARPOL - marine pollution instigated by the IMO.

 

Interestingly, Thailand is one of the few countries in the world not to have ratifyed.

Your post reminded me of one of those peculiarly Thai anomalies. At some point they required a holding tank. So I had to do my part. But they did not do their part and have pump out facilities so when that holding tank got full...........

1 minute ago, superal said:

Think I would enjoy your company over a few beers and listen to your stories . Bet you could write a book . Did you anchor up near more remote places as opposed to the big touristy towns very often ?  Have to admit after reading all posts so far I was not expecting that there would be so many expenses , kinda thought it would be cheaper than living on land and renting an apartment plus knowing that you will retain your capital asset , i.e. the boat/ yacht / cruiser . . BTW what is needed licence wise , and were you cruising solo ? 

Yeah, I got some stories, Sure, we had quiet anchorages. We cruised the entire Thai coast from Myanmar as far south as Langkawi Malaysia. As a couple on a 50 foot twin deck single diesel trawler yacht. Before we retired from that we crossed 500 miles of open water to the Andaman Islands where we cruised for the full 30 days that our visa allowed. That is an untouched place that time has forgotten. I wrote about licensing in another post. I just told the truth that I had 30 years experience and they issued me a license. If you decide to buy a boat you should PM me. I know a little bit.

Actually I have not heard of that. I am from the US and waste disposal is strictly monitored and enforced there as it should be. I was addressing the lack of requirements here in Thailand, I have been in 2 Thai marinas. Neither had a pump out station I am sorry to say. Based on what I have seen of this country they are many years away from caring about that topic. Malaysia however does understand the topic and provides solutions. Why IS that? Maybe they value the environment and not just money.

2 hours ago, superal said:

If so what are the requirements by Thai laws regarding licences and navigational quals ?

I forgot to address this. There is no testing. They take you at your word. So go ahead, buy a "Captain's License" for 500 baht. You'll need an "Engineer". Not a locomotive engineer - they mean a mechanic. That too has zero requirement. It is simply a fee for a license that has no real meaning. On my boat my wife was the "engineer". What a laugh. I know a little bit and from what I've seen I am and advanced engineer compared to the average Thai engineer. To be fair, the topic of Captain and Engineer is within the context of a commercial endeavor. Living aboard for pleasure is a very foreign concept to officials of the Marine Dept.  

40 minutes ago, mcfish said:

Agreed. And what really put me off was the the relentless humidity. OK above deck during the day if your moving but at night below deck is an oven.

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk
 

Sleeping on deck was great though wasn't it? On my motor yacht there was an upper deck. That got nicknamed The Sea Breeze Suite.

I smiled when I saw this post. I have been there and done that. I lived aboard for 5 years for my own personal enjoyment. You do not say where you are considering this adventure but my location was on the Andaman side. If this is your dream I highly recommend it. There are some things I would do and others that I would not. First, marinas are expensive. Anchoring out is not so much. If in the Phuket area there is much good and much bad. There is a reason that, back when I did this starting 10 years ago, that 5 million people visited the Phuket area every year. The marine experience is superb if you can pry yourself away from Patong Beach and Soi Bangla. Some of your answers in this thread are about sailing yachts. Mine was a purpose built long range "passage maker" motor yacht. My best days were at anchor at Nai Harn. My worst days were at anchor at Ao Chalong. I'm not sure how that translates but if it was "Pirates Cove" it would be spot on. There is a lot to this topic. You could lose your ass financially. You could lose your life. If you are not a "handyman" type you'd be better off forgetting it as you will be screwed to death. You should be very careful with this - it is a disease. I sold that 30 ton vessel 4 years ago. She was number 5 in 35 years of boating. Now number 6 is for sale and I SWEAR I'm going to quit. However I have no regrets. This has been a high point experience in my life.  

Someone wrote about "waste disposal costs". Are you kidding me? This is Thailand. Nobody gives a shit where you dump your shit. I'm not bragging, that's just how it is.

If you have zero experience at boating, well, try to get some. Do some charter trips or find some kind of way to get some experience before you are "at sea".

It is interesting to me that members will continue to muddle about with the visa requirements and terminology are even after UJ has cleared it up in his usual fashion. Did you see post 21? Way back along time ago I successfully converted my status in country from tourist to non-o based on retirement. Was it a visa? Was it an extension of stay? I don't know but here I am 10 years later with renewals every year.

I recently heard of an experience where a busload of Chinese tourists got precedence over others in the queue. That slowed the process down some. I have no idea if this is a common occurrence.

Franchises are owned privately aren't they? It looks to me like one difference is that the cheaper price was actually from a different store. "Thonglor" for that one and "Sukhumvit" for the higher priced. Right? Or I'm seeing this wrong? I'm only drinking coffee at the moment.

I have an item to ship to the US that weighs at least 25 kilos - to be weighed. Does anyone with experience on this topic know what are my options for shipping? Thai post has a limit of 20 kilos. I know that there is Fedex in this country but I'm guessing there might be a cheaper option. I expect to make a crate for it with project wood scraps that I have.  I'm more interested in price and reliability than schedule. Anybody?

7 minutes ago, Lovethailandelite said:

 Why isn't that acceptable?

I don't think anyone is saying the rules are unacceptable. It seems to me that the real issue is that the rules are not enforced the same in each location AND that the rules change so so frequently. If all was crystal clear the No. 1 visa admin on TV would not have over 14,000 posts helping people untangle the details.

I would up your budget and spend big at Victoria's Secret. Might be some dividends .........

As I'm here as a retiree I do not feel so very judgmental of the OP like a business owner who follows the rules would. I also think that we have all lived in an environment where all the rules are rarely followed to a "T". Really, it is part of the culture here I think primarily because there is a lack of enforcement. So here he is guilty like so many are in various ways. As for the idea of getting away with it if he shuts it down now, that is pure fantasy. It is entirely up to the authorities. If they want to nail him they will.

Can you use Skype to do this? I use it frequently from my laptop - I'm guessing they have an app for phone now too. Cannot quote prices in baht, but probably 2 or 3 per minute. Maybe someone else could say more about this option.

Than you for a very thorough report - I'm going to bookmark it just in case I manage a multi-entry for next year as I'm fed up with the "retirement/permission to stay" routine.

Thanks JLCrab and Elviajero. I'm actually in Ranong so visa runs are small money for the boat taxi and a crisp $10 US I think. I think your input about managing to stretch the time might be very helpful for anyone else following this who wants to do that. In my own particular circumstances I expect to continue my 6 month cycles. Does anyone know if ME could mean numerous entries during that 6 month period? I mean it would not be too challenging to plan regional travel to mesh with the 60 day out requirement but I would not necessarily want to be tied to that. Staying 6 months and doing in and out every 60 days would add up to 2 visa runs and an exit. For example if I did a visa run at 60 days and then wanted to actually go somewhere 30 days later - this year I toured Sri Lanka a little - and then other trips amounting to, say, 4 exit / entries, I assume that would not be a problem. I'm trying to look before I leap and understand any drawbacks that might come with adopting this plan. Thanks again for sharing your understanding of the topic. And last, BK6060 you may well be right about sticking with my current approach. I pretty much know the ropes for extension of stay. It feels a little tedious at times but I do manage.

When not in Thailand my legal address is in Iowa. In Thailand I'm within minutes of a popular border crossing.

When in Iowa, contact Portland, OR Honorary Thai Consulate.

Thanks for that. I'm actually wrapping up my trip this year in the Portland area for several weeks.